Hiker Meredith Emerson fought to stay alive

Hilton knew he was a wanted man, telling investigators he had followed the AJC's coverage of Emerson's abduction. On the day she died, Jan 4, he was pictured on the newspaper's front page alongside a story in which police named him a "person of interest" in the Buford hiker's disappearance. Though a police bulletin had been issued for Hilton's van with DeKalb County license plate, by then he had switched that tag for a stolen North Carolina tag. Kimberly Smith